"No way and they said Harry Potter and other magical movies where (sic) garbage with bad spirits. I think not... this is what i call a bad sick movie."

Producer Ant Timpson, a Kiwi film veteran who directs the 48 Hour Film Festival, said the trailer was meant to cause a reaction.

"I'm absolutely excited to be unapologetic."

The trailer was originally meant to be more extreme but had been toned down to comply with US censors, Timpson said.

It may have been shocking for viewers who linked to it from the Yahoo! Movies Facebook post as much of the content on the page was more mainstream, he said.

"It might have been a rude awakening to their very Twilight filled days. It's definitely more of wild trip than a movie that sets out to appall or gross out, but I'm not delusional. It's kind of a niche high concept idea."

The ABCs of Death features 26 death scenes shot by 26 directors from 15 countries.

Each director was assigned a letter of the alphabet and told to make it correspond to a different grisly demise.

The film's tagline is "26 directors, 26 ways to die".

The Austin Chronicle's review said the film achieves "such awesome heights and such tasteless depths".

It is out on demand in the US on January 31 and will be released in cinemas on March 8.